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2.Social Assessment

Objectives and Methodology

27. The purpose of the social assessment (SA) is to help ensure that the proposed Agricultural Development and Credit Project is properly targeted, socially acceptable, implementable and effective in achieving its development objectives, through generating information about stakeholders. The SA contributes to project design by identifying major stakeholders in the project, ascertaining their stakes and needs, and establishing mechanisms to engage their participation in project design and implementation. In this case, the SA analyzes the needs of different segments of the farm population, providing operational and policy recommendations to address them. A special emphasis was given to overcoming the constraints faced by the female population.
28. The SA utilizes a number of different information gathering techniques, including a household survey, focus group discussions and in-depth semi-structured interviews with key informants in the farms under consideration. In addition to determining the socio-economic status, needs and priorities of beneficiaries and other stakeholders, the SA focuses on a number of specific issues that are relevant to the project, such as: (1) main sources of livelihood; (2) decision making at the household level; (3) the social dimensions of the privatization process; (4) mechanisms of controlling access to assets; (5) assessment of constraints, opportunities and outcomes of privatization; analysis of the most vulnerable/excluded groups in the farm privatization process; (6) awareness of and perceived need for restructuring; (7) experience with credit and disposition toward credit; (8) entrepreneurship potential and experiences; (9) marketing and transactions in markets; (10) perceived information and training needs; (11) institutional trust and attitudes toward change; and (12) rating of most urgently required community infrastructure and services through participatory consultations.

Social Aspects of Agricultural Development in Europe and Central Asia Region

29. A recent study7 on social dimensions of agricultural development in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) regions found that there is a general lack of knowledge about the social dimensions of rural transition. Pre-transition social structures are important determinants of the nature and success of reforms, but little attention has been paid to them. It is, therefore, essential to establish a good understanding of current variability in agrarian social organizations in order to design well-targeted and socially sustainable rural policies and projects.
30. The report also found that there is inadequate knowledge of regional differences in the conditions of rural populations. The emergence of regionalism as a social and political force and the significance of ethnic factors in defining regional identify make the consideration of regional dimensions important in defining Bank financed agricultural policies and projects. Likewise, crop based subsidies and price controls need a careful social impact assessment based on regional considerations. If, for instance, cotton is chosen for public sector support in terms of subsidies or credits to micro-enterprises processing cotton, benefit will accrue only to certain regions, ethnic or otherwise identifiable groups.
31. There are common difficulties that farmers in the ECA region face. People directly affected by rural reforms usually appear to be the least informed. Poverty is more visible in rural areas throughout ECA and urban impoverishment increases people’s reliance on home based agricultural production. The impacts of growing rural inequity are evident in much of the region, partially due to the slow pace of formation and proliferation of independent farms. As a result, the power base of the rural society is changing. During transition, rural social services and social assets have also deteriorated rapidly.
32. Bank financed rural reform efforts, therefore, should incorporate a systematic social impact monitoring component. Efforts to monitor input, output, process, and impact indicators associated with projects should also attempt to capture sources of community variability in reform response. It is important to focus on the dynamics of this change with local specificity. Systematic social assessments can provide such an understanding. The current SA process in Azerbaijan is aimed at providing a better understanding of the issues faced in farm privatization and at designing a better Agricultural Development and Credit project.

SA Procedures to Date

33. The baseline SA in the pilot project farms consisted of five elements--a household survey in five rayons (with the exception of Sharur rayon in Nakhchevan Autonomous Republic), semi-structured interviews, participant observation, participatory focus group discussions, and a survey with women in three rayons. The first part of the SA also involved a Qualitative Rapid Assessment with a small team of local consultants. Questionnaires for the household survey and the semi-structured interviews were prepared as a result of the qualitative assessment.

  • Household survey. The survey was conducted on 900 farm households in the project rayons (three villages per rayon) during January-February 1998. Farm members were selected randomly from farm lists, including farm employees/shareholders on independent and corporate farms, proportional to population. The initial goal of the SA was to evaluate the pilot privatization efforts in these villages and compare the conditions in pilot villages to other villages. However, the project team encountered difficulties during the fieldwork and could not complete the SA as previously envisioned.8




  • Semi-Structured Interviews with farmers, unemployed workers, community leaders, women’s groups, local associations, farm managers, technicians and officials. These in-depth interviews gathered information about knowledge about and perceptions of the impact of privatization; assessment of constraints, needs and priorities; and assessments of the relative roles, limitations and opportunities of different stakeholders.




  • Participant Observation. A member of the Social Development Team for ECA region lived together with a farmer family in Khachmaz rayon to assess the conditions in their village and to conduct a first-hand observation of the effects of transition and farm privatization.




  • Focus Group Discussions. A total of 4 focus groups were conducted in the project farms in November-December 1997.9 The focus groups consisted of relatively homogeneous groups of stakeholders (farm managers, women, and unemployed workers). These discussions explored issues that emerged from the other two study methods, particularly relating to inter-group dynamics, common problems and opportunities, and ways to gain the confidence and commitment of different groups.
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